National Taiwan University (NTU) student groups on Thursday held a groundbreaking ceremony for a memorial to honor Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), a democracy advocate who died under mysterious circumstances and whose body was found on the NTU campus in 1981.
Chen, a 31-year-old mathematics professor at Carnegie Mellon University, was visiting family in Taiwan when he was found dead near NTU’s main library on July 3, 1981, one day after being detained for interrogation by the Taiwan Garrison Command, a since-disbanded state security force.
On Thursday, NTU’s undergraduate and graduate student associations and the Dr Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation and Museum officially began construction on a memorial square, after reaching their fundraising goal of NT$12 million (US$405,501) earlier this year.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“Without the students’ efforts, this groundbreaking could never have happened,” foundation chairwoman Yang Huang Mei-hsing (楊黃美幸) said.
Because the square’s purpose is to memorialize a tragedy, its design emphasizes empty space and encourages visitors to reflect — not only on what happened to Chen, but on the broader abuses of Taiwan’s authoritarian past, she added.
“University campuses were a major front in the government’s efforts to brainwash and control Taiwanese and so our job is not only to keep authoritarianism off the campus, but to record the scars that it left behind,” NTU Graduate Student Association president Wang Yu-chun (王昱鈞) said.
It is important for people to know the truth about the past, because “without the truth, there can be no forgiveness,” he added.
On July 2, the campus held a memorial event at which Vice President William Lai (賴清德) and others spoke to mark the 39th anniversary of Chen’s death.
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